A couple have been forced to cancel their dream wedding abroad as chaos continues at the passport office.
Shaun Campbell and Fiona Cox said they “couldn’t take the risk” of waiting for Shaun’s passport to arrive in time and will tie the knot near their home in Kirkconnel, Dumfriesshire, on Saturday instead.
Shaun, 30, also had to cancel his stag do to Brussels with pals. He said: “I applied to renew my passport 12 weeks ago and thought, because there was no changes that had to be made, I’d get my new one in plenty of time for my stag do and then our wedding in Turkey.
“I was supposed to be going to Brussels on July 4, so two days before, I went to the office in Glasgow and queued from 7.45am.”
After being told he had no chance of getting his passport that day, Fiona went up 24 hours later, only to also come home empty handed. Shaun said: “We realised a couple of weeks ago we couldn’t take the risk of waiting to see if it arrived and we cancelled our wedding.
“Now I’ve finally got my passport, we’ll still get to Turkey next Monday and won’t be thousands of pounds out of pocket like some other folk. The passport office knew there would be a surge in demand after Covid but did nothing about it and now look what’s happened,
“It’s a joke.”
Relief after 15 weeks of no answers
Fifteen weeks and two days it took to have my daughter’s simple passport renewal in my hands. Months of waiting anxiously, reading stories of people who had lost their holidays and thousands of pounds.
I applied for the family’s renewals on March 23, just a couple of days after booking our summer holiday to Rhodes. I opted to do it online because, surely, that would be faster than the old-fashioned paper way?
My job means I was aware applications were taking “up to 10 weeks” to process thanks to the demand as travel reopened after Covid. But I figured I had four months until our flights, which would be plenty of time and more.
Both mine and my husband’s were approved and sent out in a fairly timely manner. My eldest daughter Sophia’s took two months but it was here in plenty of time.
That just left my seven-year-old’s. Surely it wouldn’t be far behind? When we hit 10 weeks since application, the nerves started to grow. The online tracker showed no movement since April 5 when her documents were received.
I’ve spent hours on hold to the Passport Office, spoken to advisors, been transferred then cut off, sent emails, contacted my MP and still there was no sign of this wee blue book we so desperately needed.
I managed to find out around week 13 that there was a note on Gracie’s file which said the marriage certificate I’d sent to verify I was her mother could be a photocopy. It wasn’t. I only found this out as I spoke to a helpful person – at no point did anyone tell me there was an issue.
The frustration in dealing with HMPO is another level. One Saturday morning I was on hold for a total of three hours. Often you’d call, then after holding be transferred, only to be cut off and have to start the process again.
Emails are either automatically replied to or just not replied to. You are at their mercy. Two weeks from our travel date, I requested an upgrade. I fully expected to be queueing at Glasgow Passport Office 48 hours before, which seemed to be the last-gasp option.
But then a miracle. A text to say it had been approved. The following day, it was printed and then delivered the day after that. One week before we fly. The relief was overwhelming.
I showed Gracie and she whooped with joy. I can finally sleep properly again and start the holiday admin that had been put off.
But there’s thousands of others who are in the position I was. My heart goes out to all of them. It’s an experience I never want to repeat.
We pay HMPO for a service and, for far too many, that service is sadly lacking.
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